The brief said "summer, daisies, joyful". Elsie read it (with help), nodded like a tiny creative director, and told us she would need to start practising immediately. Practising what, we asked. "Holding flowers," she said, "properly."
The shoot was down a long country lane on the warmest day of June. The photographer wanted natural laughter, which is never a problem - the trick with Elsie isn't getting her to laugh, it's getting her to stop before her whole face disappears into giggles. Somewhere around frame thirty she decided the daisy needed to be smelled rather than held, and that unscripted little moment became the client's favourite shot of the whole campaign.
Between setups she appointed herself Chief Daisy Inspector and quality-checked the props one flower at a time. A hundred daisies were harmed in the making of this campaign, in the sense that they were loved extremely firmly.
The bicycle made it into the last set of frames - she held a daisy up to one eye like a telescope and declared she could see all the way to the seaside. The crew wrapped early, everyone had ice lollies, and Elsie fell asleep in the car eleven seconds after her seatbelt clicked. A perfect day at the office.